HP Instant Capacity Version 10.x User Guide (762794-001, March 2014)

Measurement software and Instant Capacity systems
Systems with Instant Capacity components (and systems contributing usage rights to Instant Capacity
systems) might have fewer active cores than the total number of cores in the system. This fundamental
difference between the number of active cores and the total number of cores can cause some
processor measurement products and utilities to report incorrect information. Additionally, when
a core is dynamically activated, some software products must recognize the change in the number
of active cores to report correct processing information.
HP OpenView measurement products
HP OpenView measurement products, such as MeasureWare and GlancePlus, must be version
C.02.60 or later to provide correct measurements. Earlier versions of the OpenView measurement
products might not work correctly on Instant Capacity systems.
On HP Integrity Superdome systems
On HP Integrity Superdome systems, HP recommends updating to the GlancePlus Pak version
C.03.20 or later.
Other measurement software
Consult your measurement software vendor about whether their software works properly on Instant
Capacity systems, and update the measurement software versions as needed.
Dynamic processor resilience (HP-UX)
The LPMC monitor, within the Support Tools Manager (STM) diagnostics, generates Information
events for all cache errors that are detected. After three errors (Threshold) are detected on a
processor in 1440 minutes, or a 24-hour period of time (Period), the monitor deactivates that
particular processor, marks it for deconfiguration on the next system reboot, and generates a
Serious event. After the failed processor is deactivated, the LPMC monitor attempts to activate one
of the inactive Instant Capacity cores, if any are available. This method ensures the processing
power of the system is unchanged.
A default value of 3 is assigned to Threshold, except for the PCX-W+ family of processors, which
have a value of 5 assigned. The default value assigned to a Period is 1440 minutes, or 24 hours,
in all possible processor configurations.
An inactive processor under warranty or support automatically replaces a failed processor. HP
also services and replaces any failed processor.
Monarch processors
For details about replacing failed monarch processors, see “Failed monarch processors (HP-UX)”
(page 51).
Security issues
Customer protections which iCAP assumes to be in place
Instant Capacity commands provide system status information and facilitate system configuration
modification, and are therefore executable only by users with root level access. An assumption is
made that there exist administrative policies which exercise the appropriate degree of control over
root level access.
Disabling the iCAP daemon (HP-UX)
On a system with full usage rights (no iCAP components), you can disable the iCAP daemon
(icapd) by commenting out its entry in the /etc/inittab system file, resetting the init task
(init -q), and killing icapd via kill -9 or kill -s SIGTERM.
Note that disabling the daemon in this way on an iCAP or GiCAP system is a violation of the iCAP
contract with HP. After 12 to 24 hours, the system goes out of compliance and an exception
210 Special Considerations